Accounts Terminated...uo.com news...Jeremy Dalberg 04 Aug 2008 13:25:35

[Krystal]

Good job ban them all!!

if u wanna be dupe free play SP. no dupers here! heheh

 

[Aboo]

if you dont know that a 15 mil val hammer or a 1 mil barbed kit is a dupe you shouldnt be playing.

Your statement baloney. I have never owned a val hammer nor a barbed kit (unless you count TC where they GIVE them to you). I have also never shopped for one so if I ever had the need to buy one I would have absolutely NO idea what they would cost.

 

[Pax]

if you dont know that a 15 mil val hammer or a 1 mil barbed kit is a dupe you shouldnt be playing.

That's a tad unkind! I have been playing for over 10 years and I really do not keep up with current prices. Inflation is rife and unless you are a hard core buyer you wouldn't know what was underpriced or overpriced.

Thank you for saying that. At last a bit of logic! It stands to reason *only* those who have always checked on the prices of such things, because they've always had crafters, would know what such items should sell for. Though I started playing a couple of months after UO began, I've never had a GM smith, for instance, and I had NO idea Val Hammers sold for such nose-bleed prices! To me 15 mil sounds unbelievably expensive, so to think of such a high price as "cheap" seems ridiculous.

As for Barbed Kits, 3.5 mil seems the average price for them on Legends. If that's cheap, then *every single Barbed Kit being sold on Legends is a dupe*, because none are priced higher than that on any of the vendors anywhere that I've ever seen, and that they are ALL dupes is far from likely. Though I do have a GM tailor, I've *never* done the BoD thing, so I really have no idea how easy or hard it is to get a Barbed Kit. Never really worried about it either since, if I want good armor for my mages, I shop around and buy it.

Assuming *everyone* should always automatically know what any such items should sell for is absolutely imbecilic. How people play UO has a lot to do with what they've chosen to educate themselves concerning, just like in real life... and how long they've been playing UO has very little to do with what they should or shouldn't have learned about this or that specialty (and the things that go with it) that they have very little if any interest in.

However, if even a long-time player decides to try out a new area of gameplay for them, namely crafting, and trains up a smith or tailor, that doesn't mean they would automatically start BoDding along with it, and BoDding religiously is the *only* way anyone would discover how hard or easy it is to get this or that BoD Reward.

There are too many spurious assumptions concerning this whole argument to make the vilification of many of the buyers of dupes warranted. The guilt *must* be placed where it belongs, on the dupers... and on EA/Mythic for not notifying all its players through the boot screen or though email, if nothing else, that certain items were being duped and buying them could result in severe penalties being imposed upon the buyer.

There are SOME things which carry with them a greater responsibility on the part of the "policing" body, due to the unfairness of unjustly punishing a large number of innocents along with the guilty. This is one of those instances. To punish someone for an act done in ignorance, when there is not one of us who is not grossly ignorant in some area or other, is a high-handed and cruel action, and should not be tolerated.

Be well - Pax

 

[gjohnson5]

That's a tad unkind! I have been playing for over 10 years and I really do not keep up with current prices. Inflation is rife and unless you are a hard core buyer you wouldn't know what was underpriced or overpriced.

If you sell an item at a pawn shop do they ask you if it's stolen or not...
NO
So why should players care if it's duped anyway

Why not fix the duping???

 

[Connor_Graham]

If you sell an item at a pawn shop do they ask you if it's stolen or not...
NO

No, but they do check it to see if it has.

 

[Ashyn]

No, but they do check it to see if it has.

Hey, I live in a VERY transient area - overpuplated with Pawn shops and bars (actually in Guiness for that bar part).

The ones here do ask and won't accept anything without proper ID - so they know who they got it from and have substantial proof. Sure the system isn't perfect (a fake I.D. can be used, and naturally you can lie and say "I've owned this 1914 watch all my life"). But, you can bet if they do end up with something that was "stolen," their business isn't shut down, the person who sold it to them is.

Edit: would that be "who" or "whom?" lol

 

[azmodanb]

Thanks Jeremy for the update, keep them comming! You know that on these boards no matter what you post good or bad you get flamed .. Keep up the great work there at EA.

 

[Flora Green]

The only thing this "deterrent" does for me is makes me not want to deal with players at all. Makes me want to fire up a new account strictly for buying stuff:loser:

According to EA's logic on this is if I happen to save my money to buy an item below cost that might be duped, I'll be banned and lose all my stuff

Makes me not want to bother with the game at all.

 

[Scratch]

That's a tad unkind! I have been playing for over 10 years and I really do not keep up with current prices. Inflation is rife and unless you are a hard core buyer you wouldn't know what was underpriced or overpriced.

if you have indeed played for 10 ys you should know that you dont see multiple vendors with multiple valorite hammers on them
in the old days you were lucky to even have known someone with a valorite hammer let alone seen a vendor with 10 of em

the duped items are quite obviously identified on sight by even the noobest of noobs

everyone is crying innocence and that is hilarious
kinda reminds me of the prisoners in jail across the country

 

[Yalp]

if you have indeed played for 10 ys you should know that you dont see multiple vendors with multiple valorite hammers on them
in the old days you were lucky to even have known someone with a valorite hammer let alone seen a vendor with 10 of em

the duped items are quite obviously identified on sight by even the noobest of noobs

everyone is crying innocence and that is hilarious
kinda reminds me of the prisoners in jail across the country

You are throwing out big ass-hat assumptions about what everyone should of, could of, or would have known.

LORD Yalp of Zento, CTDM

 

[Flora Green]

Bravo MissEcho!

 

[AEowynSP]

Good job ban them all!!

if u wanna be dupe free play SP. no dupers here! heheh

What about the little innocent savage who got banned on Siege and had his house deleted?

 

[Lolindir]

if you have indeed played for 10 ys you should know that you dont see multiple vendors with multiple valorite hammers on them
in the old days you were lucky to even have known someone with a valorite hammer let alone seen a vendor with 10 of em

the duped items are quite obviously identified on sight by even the noobest of noobs

everyone is crying innocence and that is hilarious
kinda reminds me of the prisoners in jail across the country

I am a veteran player, but still had to see my account go in this round of account terminations. Like more people already have stated, not all of us care that much about runics and other high-end and expensive equiptment and would have no clue what the norm. price is. I for one have stepped down from "real PVP" some years ago and started RPing instead. This makes high-end gear totaly useless for me, as I only wear GM made (non-runic) items anyway. As for Siege Perilous.. I dont even have enough moeny to dream about buying those kind of items.

As long as players are allowed to set up player vendores in their houses, EA/Mythic has to work on making it totaly safe for everybody to use them. No one can realy know whether they are browsing through dupes or real items, and simply saying "learn the prices" is far from good enough.
For most players going to a vendor to shop is just as natural as going to any store IRL. You expect to get a legal item, and you expect you wont have to explain your purchase the next day (at least IRL you would get the chanse of speaking your mind).
Seeing as EA/Myth has a way of finding duped items, one wouldnt think it would be soo hard to properly mark them. Add some neon colors or apply some text to them; "This item has been made illegaly and should not be purchesed under any circumstances".

The sadest part of it is being kept in the dark. There are very little information to find about illegal items, and even less information to get after the account was terminated. As I've never bought any runics or artifacts of any quantity (I dont have doubles of any of the artifacts I have), I find it very hard to belive that i had "a multitude of highly illegal items". Even though they continue to claim this they wont tell me witch items specificly I alledgedly have duped or purchased.
EA sees this as a way of informing the dupers on what they are looking for, but what it also does is to help by not giveing us a chanse of warning other players thay may go in the same trap.

 

[Lolindir]

What about the little innocent savage who got banned on Siege and had his house deleted?

Yes, exactly.

 

[Andsteel]

if you have indeed played for 10 ys you should know that you dont see multiple vendors with multiple valorite hammers on them
in the old days you were lucky to even have known someone with a valorite hammer let alone seen a vendor with 10 of em

the duped items are quite obviously identified on sight by even the noobest of noobs

everyone is crying innocence and that is hilarious
kinda reminds me of the prisoners in jail across the country

What makes you think I condone duping? I am merely stating that I do not shop often and have no idea of prices. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that one day I may decide to buy a valorite hammer and ,by your tenet , I am supposed to know how much a real one would cost and how many should be on the market at any given point in time...

 

[THP]

Owning a ''Glacial Spell Books'' will get ya banned iam sure!!!

I used to see a couple of players on Europa parading there glacial spell book at the wbb/ and luna bank.....

Well !!!! im pretty sure this is an OBVOIUS duped item so i stayed well clear of em ...even though there was one for sale in Luna for ages at about 25m!!

KInda anyone with one of these iam pretty sure will have been banned!! and lets be frank dont moan about it if u did...it was a plain simple duped item that u aquired by duping or buying knowing full well it was a duped item u were buying!! [end of story]

 

[Revenant2]

The sadest part of it is being kept in the dark. There are very little information to find about illegal items, and even less information to get after the account was terminated. As I've never bought any runics or artifacts of any quantity (I dont have doubles of any of the artifacts I have), I find it very hard to belive that i had "a multitude of highly illegal items". Even though they continue to claim this they wont tell me witch items specificly I alledgedly have duped or purchased.

EA erm,

This looks ********.

Either these guys are lying out their asses (the character of the writer doesn't suggest this) or something funny is going on here!

If I was youall I'd be hitting a backup copy of the shards and getting started in responding meaningfully to the questions of "WHICH ITEMS DID WE HAVE THAT QUALIFIED AS A MULTITUDE OF DUPES". Without this information being available to the account owner (who yes may then distribute it) it makes youall look bad.

Even if the result is the person saying "no i didnt!", at that point it becomes word against word, as opposed with word against silence. When word opposes silence, the word is what comes through louder.

 

[Pax]

Owning a ''Glacial Spell Books'' will get ya banned iam sure!!!

I used to see a couple of players on Europa parading there glacial spell book at the wbb/ and luna bank.....

Well !!!! im pretty sure this is an OBVOIUS duped item so i stayed well clear of em ...even though there was one for sale in Luna for ages at about 25m!!

KInda anyone with one of these iam pretty sure will have been banned!! and lets be frank dont moan about it if u did...it was a plain simple duped item that u aquired by duping or buying knowing full well it was a duped item u were buying!! [end of story]

Assuming all-pervasive omniscience concerning all things UO is flat stupid. Such assumptions by you and other witch hunters are startling! Omniscience is the purview of no human, though it is flippantly claimed by those such as you. Are you such a "noob" you are unaware of all the special one or two of a kind items like Server Birth Rares, or one of a kind or commemorative items sometimes created for events or, for reasons only they know, unique items created by some GMs on a whim (at least in the past) and given to some lucky players?

At the beginning of AoS, when I'd just started playing UO again, a GM had pity on me when I lost my first Orange Petals plant to the dreaded Roof Lock-Downs Bug and divided the small valorite table the plant had been sitting on into its 3 (yes 3, not just 2) component parts, locked them down and left them that way. This was looooooong before Magincia Rubble, when no one had parts of tables and such. Those things were worth a fortune back then to rares collectors. Unfortunately I wasn't a rares collector back then, and had no idea of the marvelous gift the GM had given me. Instead I was distraught that he had left the valorite table (I had worked so hard to save up the gold to buy) in three "useless" pieces, and proceded to chop each piece with an axe, hoping one would produce the deed to the table. (MAN! Remembering how stupid I was about rares back then and what I did as a result of my ignorance STILL hurts. Sheesh!)

My point is, ignorance is its own punishment. However, ignorance concerning breaking the rules is curable, its cure is... wait for it... EDUCATION! Education concerning the rules, what constitutes *breaking* those rules, and the punishment that would be doled out to those who chose to break those rules. An education along those lines would result in the vast majority of players bending over backwards not to break those rules and suffer the dire consequences!

WOW! Novel idea, huh?! Guess that's why no one at EA/Mythic thought of it.

The educator concerning duped items and their punitive dangers should *always* be the entity whose rules are being broken and who will, as a result of infractions, dish out the punishments. Who is that entity in the case of UO? EA/Mythic, witch hunter, it is they who hold the keys to the UO kingdom and only they who have the power to ban and delete. With that chilling power comes the equally onerous burden of a responsibility to keep their customers educated concerning the perils of UO as well as its pleasures.

Be well - Pax

 

[THP]

Pax !!!!! LOL... mAKE NO mISTAKE glacial Spellbooks are 100% duped they are not old EM Event items...100% DUPE ...100%READ THIS AND IF U GOT ONE BIN IT QUICK!!! [end of story]

 

[Pax]

Pax !!!!! LOL... mAKE NO mISTAKE glacial Spellbooks are 100% duped they are not old EM Event items...100% DUPE ...100%READ THIS AND IF U GOT ONE BIN IT QUICK!!! [end of story]

Nope, don't have one, but thanks for the warning. LOL What I meant was that it's possible for anyone, in ignorance, to buy what they think is a unique rare only to find out later it's a dupe. I've seen players who have decided to quit UO give everything they own away, including their castles and all their rares. I've seen others put everything they think is sellable on vendors at ridiculously low prices to turn as much into gold as possible before they quit, knowing their characters (and all the stuff they're carrying and have in their bank boxes) will still be there indefinitely, because they think they might choose to come back at some future date, but don't want to pay the monthly fees in the interim.

What I mean is that a low price by itself isn't enough reason to come to the conclusion something is duped. Add to that the player making the purchase needs to be aware the price *is* too low, coupled with the knowledge the seller has *way* too many of that item for sale at that too low price.

Do you see what I'm getting at? There are so many ways for a completely innocent player to wind up in deep trouble, as long as the player base is kept ignorant of the specific facts they need to help them avoid such pitfalls.

Be well - Pax

 

[Lord Kynd]

We don't warn dupers before fixing dupes. That includes doing a mass ban before the bug is fixed.

why before ?
why not just fix the bug's ?

all banning people is doing is satisfying a few people that seem to get off getting other players banned, and pissing off 5x more players, and scaring players into not playing in fear they might do something 'wrong', something that should not even be availiable in the first place.
i logged in earlier to see if i could still, then promptly logged back out and did other things because crap i might go kill lady Mel and somehow get 2 crimsons in one drop and get banned , or step out and the thing dupes somehow.. i want to play and enjoy playing, not play in fear of not knowing if something might happen and i can't play. ( does this make sence)

yell scripters/bugs/cheats and point fingers at everyone all you want people, but tell them to fix the problem in the software allowing this crap to happen in the first place.

people only cheat because they can.

with all the publicity of scripting it is no wonder so many people are talking about doing it. i looked at the site and was amazed at the number of users OMFG.

how are you going to fix scripting and not take away that much profit?
edit: i am told people that do the free shard thing also use them so these numbers are not all EA server scripters.

 

[THP]

Pax it 'Tis a good point...alas

I aint buying jack squat till we get an official announcement on buying stuff.

However i aint soo naive as to think some would get banned for just buying 1 or 2 valorite hammers or barbed kits unknowing they were duped...thats plain nonsense!!!!!!!!....but if someone bought 50 val hammers or 50 barbed kits then u can bet ya bottom dollar they knew full well they were buying duped crap at low low market value....yahh yahh as no newbie is gonna buy stuff like this in bulk!!! Hey ive been around 8 years or so i aint a big bod colector but ive collected on 1 smith for years and i still aint got either enough bods to make a verite or valorite hammer and thats in over 8 years so they used to be pretty rare!!!! yah yah!!!

[nuff said]

 

[Lord Kynd]

the way to control cheating is to fix the bugs so that the cheaters can not cheat. massive bannings are only for show and to appease people like you and distract from the real issue. banning someone for picking up val hammers at an IDOC or buying them off a vendor is completely unfair.

the important that is that little 14 year old Bobby can't dupe. once you take that away from him he will go back to farming Doom arties or griefing Trammelites. if you ban him he's just going to buy an account and keep on playing until the next dupe or cheat comes along.

you know what ..
you just hit the nail right on the head.

fight all cheating by fixing the problem, not trying to fix the people that pay you to fix the problems.

makes sence

 

[Lord Kynd]

What I mean is that a low price by itself isn't enough reason to come to the conclusion something is duped. Add to that the player making the purchase needs to be aware the price *is* too low, coupled with the knowledge the seller has *way* too many of that item for sale at that too low price.

Do you see what I'm getting at? There are so many ways for a completely innocent player to wind up in deep trouble, as long as the player base is kept ignorant of the specific facts they need to help them avoid such pitfalls.

Be well - Pax

i feel this way also, i would rather know what is going on so i know not to do it.
obviously i read the post's about the hammers, so i made sure i didn't go and buy any hammers. not that i am into making things anyhow.. enhancing i'll try tho. but i wish i had one for display

i see your point on having alot of stuff and selling it cheep to get rid of it if your quitting, or giving stuff to people when you quit, i've gotten lot's from people quitting, and IDOC's( what a rush idoc's are ), and from hording for so long..
that doesn't meen you cheated.

 

[Pax]

Pax it 'Tis a good point...alas

I aint buying jack squat till we get an official announcement on buying stuff.

Me too, because that's exactly the position imposed ignorance has placed us all in! Think what that does to the economy of UO, vendors don't stop charging just because players stop buying.

However i aint soo naive as to think some would get banned for just buying 1 or 2 valorite hammers or barbed kits unknowing they were duped...thats plain nonsense!!!!!!!!....but if someone bought 50 val hammers or 50 barbed kits then u can bet ya bottom dollar they knew full well they were buying duped crap at low low market value....yahh yahh as no newbie is gonna buy stuff like this in bulk!!! Hey ive been around 8 years or so i aint a big bod colector but ive collected on 1 smith for years and i still aint got either enough bods to make a verite or valorite hammer and thats in over 8 years so they used to be pretty rare!!!! yah yah!!!

[nuff said]

Honestly, since they've been so vague concerning what it actually *does* take to wind up banned, there's no way to tell what might be *enough* of the "wrong" thing. From what's actually been said officially so far, one of something might do it. Scary thought... oh... Crud! Now I'm paranoid. I love to shop. LOL

When they pumped the quality of stuff runics made, I finally broke down and bought 4 or 5 Horned Kits and 1 Barbed Kit, since the prices on vendors for good armor have been getting more and more ridiculous for quite a while now. I'm certain I'm not alone in being worried. I must confess, before I read the boards just recently I actually didn't know they were duping kits and hammers... but I don't expect anyone to believe that. I just never played any of my crafters for any other reason than to repair stuff.

Oh to be young and know it all again. The older I get the more ignorant about just about everything I discover I am.

Be well - Pax

 

[Lord Kynd]

Sarphus, the dupe is fixed. Has been for a while now.

not sure how i missed this earlier , but if it was? fixed
couldn't you have just deleted all the duped items ?

at least one good thing came of this duping , it got so popularly known something was done about it.

 

[Pax]

i feel this way also, i would rather know what is going on so i know not to do it.
obviously i read the post's about the hammers, so i made sure i didn't go and buy any hammers. not that i am into making things anyhow.. enhancing i'll try tho. but i wish i had one for display

i see your point on having alot of stuff and selling it cheep to get rid of it if your quitting, or giving stuff to people when you quit, i've gotten lot's from people quitting, and IDOC's( what a rush idoc's are ), and from hording for so long..
that doesn't meen you cheated.

Very true! I've been hoarding things forever. I love collecting certain things, like bearskin rugs, tapestries, and Heritage Tokens, because I love to deco houses; I also buy things as gifts for my son and his wife to deco their houses. I've also done a couple of IDoCs, and they are fun.

But now what? Shopping is hazardous to your UO life, as are IDoCs... so...? Should we just stop putting up vendors and concentrate on PvM and PvP, with crafters used only to make stuff for other characters on the account they belong to and friends, perhaps?

Keeping us players in the dark about the particulars of something so critical could wind up being the biggest UO economy killer of them all.

Be well - Pax

 

[brundlefly]

A year ago my wife started my account as a gift to me. She heard me talking about the game Id played for 4 years before quiting. She asked me about the 14 day trial just to see if I would stay interested. Then she asked me how much gold I wanted to start with.
I didnt understand...
She pointed out all the sites to buy game resources (EA being one of them). Gold , runics, weps , armor and armor sets , transfer tokens and etc.
Not knowing what to expect I just started playing the game.
A week or so later it was clear to me the game REALLY changed and the economy was REALLY inflated. Everyone had rares. Everyone had millions in gold.
A year later Im still playing because I love the game.
Looking at the scenario with my wife , anyone new could assume that it was fine to buy any of the runics off a vendor in the game. Based on the prices they were charging , one may even think buying gold was part of the game.
That in mind .,..I dont think banning a player for buying duped items is fair .
If I buy a pair of cheap knock off sunglasses on the street corner and a cop rolls up and busts the seller, he's going to take the sunglasses from me and tell me to beat it. Not tell me to get in the car. If Im buying 200 pairs I go for the ride.
I dont know how they determine who is guilty. I cant see how they dont see some of the obvious ones. But I know, if they dont fix the bugs, this will kill the game.

 

[Eslake]

Sarphus, the dupe is fixed. Has been for a while now.

Did I not warn you that you would be named in every 3rd post with people demanding your attention on all issues in the game?

But seriously, THE Dupe implies only 1 method was possible. So you are saying there are still several other methods still active in the game that have not been fixed.


Walk up to the next programmer you see for me and say these words...

ItemIdent Assignment
Verify Calling Request

If their eyes don't light up, they're brain dead.
It is a 100% solution to all current and future dupe potentials.

The application would take maybe an hour to identify every VALID Calling script, and only a few minutes of actual coding to impliment it.

 

[THP]

The last round of burning houses nobody complained because they were ALL guilty as charged....This time is sooo different

However i cant accept anyone would be banned for owning 200-300 1m gold checks... thats stupid as that amount is easily acheived in 7-8 years play legally and legit too!!!

Also most players of 7-8 years will have many many bods too - quite litterary thousands of bods...so that aint gonna be the cause either....

I for one aint buying jack squat form any player or vendor untill the root of the problem as been exposed

 

[Lolindir]

The last round of burning houses nobody complained because they were ALL guilty as charged....This time is sooo different

However i cant accept anyone would be banned for owning 200-300 1m gold checks... thats stupid as that amount is easily acheived in 7-8 years play legally and legit too!!!

Also most players of 7-8 years will have many many bods too - quite litterary thousands of bods...so that aint gonna be the cause either....

I for one aint buying jack squat form any player or vendor untill the root of the problem as been exposed

Yes, this seems to be the case for most of the accused. Players that doesnt even have, or havent had, a bundance of the same items, or an unsensible quantity of valueable items at all.

Unlike you I make some purchases from player vendors from time to time. I've bought about ten artifacts or so all in all, and dont have more than one of any of them. Also I've bougt some BRSK during the years, I still have one of them left.

On the account that got banned I can't say i had any multitude of antything but bandages, orange seeds and petals (I'm planting my own petals), crappy armor and weapons, and of course.. some fourty mill saved up over the years. Some of it made by selling items I've bought earlier, some from champ hunts some years back and the rest from PVE.

What troubles me a bit is that the items mentioned above is still on my other accounts. Only my bandages, orange seed and petals (all this was in my house on Siege Perilous) and the bank checks (was placed in one of the chars bank on Europa).
May this meen that EA just wanted to scare most people of, and didnt realy fix any problems at all? Am I in danger of loosing another account in the next round because they wont tell me what I'm being accused of haveing?

 

[THP]

I honestly think ...

The amount of bods u have stored can have no bearing...

The amount of gold checks u have stored can have no bearing...

We are looking at people with 25+ or more val hammers....Remember most people would be damn lucky to recive enough bods to make one or two max in possibly 7-8 years of playing....

Then obvoius stuff.... like the blatant 100% dupe.....Im carrying a glacial spellbook at the bank!!! ''look at me looking sooooo cool'' stuff...

I just hope that if innocent people have been caught up for having like heaps of lesser runic hammers, which are easy to aquire like copper and bronze... then they are reinstated with a big castle etc etc and big big apology!! maybe even 1 years free game time too!!!

 

[Experimental]

Then obvoius stuff.... like the blatant 100% dupe.....Im carrying a glacial spellbook at the bank!!! ''look at me looking sooooo cool'' stuff...

God, why do you seem to have this obsession with glacial spellbooks??
They are ugly, useless and don't affect gameplay or other players in any way, except maybe to blind them.
Try and focus on the REAL problem.

 

[THP]

But they have been duped and people even carry them proclaiming hey '' i support duping!!'' look what ive just duped!! or look what ive just bought from luna vendors for 25m plus knowing full well its duped item!!

Is that not part of the same problem???????? DUPING!!!

 

[burnttrees]

the glacial spell book may be comeing up since someone in the trade forum was asking about one i never even knew it existed until he finally showed an image of it due to the confusion of that and a tukono died spell book as the playuer was trying to figure out if it was a ligit item in game or if it was like the anvil that fits in the back pack

but i could be wrong